We arrived at Heathrow around 7:00am. We went through customs (stamp #1 in my new passport!) and Becca, Mikki, and Zeeni exchanged some American dollars in to British pounds sterling. I had already exchanged money before we left so that I was prepared.

£100 + €100 cost me $345 at the AmEx. Euros (€) are worth about 25-30% more than the American dollar, but British pounds (£) are double the US dollar, which really sucked.

My cousin Dahlia had lived in London for about nine months and had warned me that London was expensive, and I didn't realize just how expensive it was until I got there. Everything in London cost double what it would cost in the States.

We got on the London Underground's Piccadilly Line (1) and headed to Russell Square. The cost of an all-day pass on the DC Metro is $6; the cost of an all-day pass on the Tube was £6 (like I said, double!). When we got to Russell Square, the exits were a little confusing. No escalators, but there were lifts (British for "elevator") that would take us (and our 200 lbs. of luggage) up to the street. I'm standing in front of the lift looking for the "up" button but not seeing it anywhere. Zeeni was further back and didn't realize the one button-looking thing wasn't a button and asked why I didn't press it, as if I were crazy. It turns out the lifts were automatic to avoid confusion, but we were certainly confused—as were some Asians that arrived at the lifts shortly after we did. Other than that, we got the hang of the Tube pretty quickly.

We stopped at a drug store across from the station so that Zeeni could pick up some deodorant, which she forgot to pack. We were standing outside waiting for her wondering what was taking so long. When she finally came out she said the store didn't have any brands she recognized or any roll-on deodorant—just the spray-can kind.

We finally headed down the street toward Russell Square based on the awful map found in our travel packs.

Eventually we located the Imperial Hotel, and headed over to check in. We got these cards that we had to have with us to retrieve our key from the front desk anytime we left the hotel. And the keys were on long metal wands so that we wouldn't leave the hotel with them (2). I prefer the credit card style hotel keys, but when in London...

Our room was pretty nice, and the view of Russell Square was really pretty (3). It was only 9:00am and we were all pretty tired. I had agreed to meet up with a girl from a different tour that was leaving that Sunday. Her name was Lisa (alias "Maven of Music"), and I met her through the Contiki message boards. We were supposed to meet at the Contiki Basement around 11:00am. I decided to take a nap before heading over sans alarm clock. I woke up around 2:00pm. Oops. Sorry Lisa. Well, I think we had finally adjusted to London time.

I took a shower and got ready to go out and see London. Mikki and I were ready at least half an hour before Zeeni and Becca and waited for them. Mikki's nice warnings, "Everything closes really early here, we should get going" fell on deaf ears.

The water isn't safe to drink in London, so we had to order bottled "still" water. The meal was good, but cost each of us £20—$40! It was an expensive lesson I kept in mind for the rest of my time in London. After all, I had only budgeted £50 per day.

So we made it to the "big fuckin' statue" and then verified with a bobby (police officer) that we were going the right way. The statue was in Trafalgar Square, and all the clubs were in Leicester Square (pronounced "luster"). We went to Chiquinto (13) which was a Spanish bar and apparently they didn't serve Red Bull so we couldn't have the Jägerbombs we requested. The bartender made us something else instead—something like green milk with bubble gum flavor. I don't know what he called it, but I'm pretty sure there was minimal alcohol in it. We met two nice guys from the States (NYC and Boston). Then the six of us did shots with the shooter girl, who had a crazy costume on (my pictures didn't come out).

We had another drink then decided to check out the rest of the clubs. The next place we stopped at wanted £15 cover per girl. $30? Screw that. Moving on.

We danced upstairs for a while then went for a bathroom break. As we walked into the toilets (English for restrooms in general), Zeeni summed up what we saw perfectly: "Holy compact!" (15)

While in the toilet, we met a woman that was very helpful in telling us of good places to go and how to get there, including where to go on Sundays during the day. We went down to the basement, where we danced to actual dance music—not Michael Jackson and the Weathergirls, which were both playing upstairs. We could have danced all night considering we were all in sneakers, jeans, and t-shirts. But it was time to check out the other places.

We were stopped by a stag party (bachelor party) that wanted us to go back into LIIT because they couldn't get in without a girl for each guy in the party. As long as they bought us one drink each and then we could leave, we agreed. But the club wouldn't let anyone else in anyway.

We went to catch the Tube home, but it was closed. London shuts down way too early! So we grabbed some food at an open restaurant (it was expensive for two gyro-type wraps). About ten teenage boys (16), all in Express for Men shirts, were leaving and vented their "we aren't old enough to party so we have to sit in a restaurant in Leicester Square and watch all the drunk people have fun" frustrations out on us Americans.

Another table of locals asked if we were Americans, as if it weren't super obvious. We got out of there and tried to figure out our way home on the near deserted streets of London. We ran into some black girls dancing randomly outside their car on the sidewalk to "Beat It" and Mikki joined in for a few lines.

Finally we made it back to our hotel after asking many, many people where Russell Square was, and they all gave different answers. If someone, anyone, knew his/her way around the Leicester Square/Covent Garden/Holburn/Russell Square area, we would have been home in fifteen minutes, but we couldn't find anyone like that. It took about 45 minutes since we kept going the wrong way. Oh well, we made it. Thank goodness we all had sneakers on!

Day 3 • Sunday, May 8, 2005 • London, England

We woke up on Sunday with intentions of going to the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace at 11:00am, but that didn't happen. Mikki woke up really early because that's what she does when she drinks too much. She never vomited on Saturday night, but came close a few times, namely on Holburn St. when we were trying to find our way back to the hotel. Her solution for getting up early was to go running around the Square. She's crazy. I took it easier, even though I felt fine. No hangover. After all, how can I have a hangover if I don't get drunk?

The whole area was really pretty, and it was crazy to think parts of it were almost one thousand years old, dating back to William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We don't have history like that in the States.

Then Mikki and I wanted to check out the Globe (Shakespeare's theatre) before going shopping, since it was sort of close by. We couldn't figure out how to get there by Tube, so we skipped it and decided to find Spitalsfield Market. Spitalsfield Market is a market that is open on Sundays and has a lot of great shopping. Dahlia had told me about it and recommended it, so I definitely wanted to check it out. We took the Tube to one stop that the girl in the LIIT toilet said to go to, but when we got there, we found out that it was the wrong stop, and we would have to walk at least twenty minutes from our current location. We didn't want to do that. Fortunately the Tube is really efficient, so getting to the correct stop didn't take very long.

I looked around, lots of homemade jewelry, purses, shirts, and skirts, but none of it was AWESOME (23). If I bought something, I wanted to LOVE it. Around 4:20pm I went back to this one booth where I had seen some artwork I really liked. Becca and Zeeni were there and Becca had her eye on a piece of artwork too. She bought two pieces to go over her king-size bed. I bought the picture that I had my eye on. Finally, £25 well spent.

We got some pizza at Pizza Express, The food was pretty good, but our waitress was not. She told another manager/waiter she couldn't understand us and left. Maybe it was the end of her shift, but can't she at least finish out her tables?

We took the Tube back to our hotel to take a nap. We were exhausted. Mikki and I crashed around 6 or 6:30pm. We were going to nap and then get dinner. Only problem was that we slept until midnight. Oops. I tried to get back to sleep since if I were to get up, I'd never get back to bed.

Mikki was really hungry though, so we went downstairs to the hotel bar to get some food. I got sausage, mash and gravy, and Mikki got ham, chips (fries), and something else, but she didn't eat the ham (too salty). Since Zeeni and Becca were in a different room, we didn't want to knock on their door after midnight, and besides, we figured they had already had dinner and were either sleeping or out for the night.

Mik and I went back upstairs, I read a little bit, then went to bed. We planned to get up early on Monday and see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Mikki and I woke up and took the Tube to Buckingham Palace (24) (whatever the closest stop was...Victoria?) just in time for the Changing of the Guards (25). The fountain and sidewalks in front of the gates were packed with tourists. The guards did their thing (26), there was a little parade, and we got a few pictures of the festivities (27).

We walked (over the Millennium Bridge) to the London Eye (31). £12.50—not an atrocious price for it being as cool as it was. The line to go on the Eye was pretty fast, and we had a really good view of all of London. The pod in front of us only had three people in it (32), even though the "Eye-pods" (get it? I made that up myself) could hold about twenty people. I was pretty glad ours was full so we could help take pictures of each other (33). It took about twenty minutes to go all the way around, and I think it is ingenious how the pod rotates around the outside of the Eye (35).

Check out the video of our view from the London Eye (34). (Warning: do not attempt to view the video on a dial-up connection.)

Afterwards, we walked back over toward Big Ben since Westminster Cathedral/Abbey (36) was across from Parliament. As we were getting there, it started to rain pretty heavily. We got on one of the Original Buses to stay dry and go see a different part of town. When we hopped on the bus, the guide was kind of rude because he wanted to know exactly where we wanted to go. We had no idea, but blurted out St. Paul's Cathedral and got on.

The guide pointed out the British National Gallery in Trafalgar Square (37) and that admission was free. Since it was about the only thing in London that was free, and it was raining, we decided to go there.

I suspected the gallery would have a lot of famous artwork. I had no idea! When we got inside and got a map, I was overwhelmed with choices and masterpieces that I had studied in art history classes.

The highlights included a few Van Goghs, including "A Wheatfield with Cypresses"; Jan Van Eyck's "Man in the Red Turban/Self Portrait" (very cool frame by the way); and "The Wedding (Arnolfini) Portrait," which was one of my favorites; Leonardo di Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" and large sketch that ended up not being used for a different painting; "The Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein; and a couple paintings by Jan Vermeer, including "A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal." One painting that I wasn't familiar with, but which was definitely memorable, was "A Grotesque Old Woman" by Quinten Massys. One more, and probably the most famous for those who haven't studied art history is Claude Monet's "The Water-Lily Pond." I would include pictures of each of these, but the Gallery would not allow any pictures to be taken.

Mikki and I were both getting hungry, so we stopped an got some scones and mochas at the Gallery's café. I ordered a cinnamon roll, but in London that means scone. That or the servers don't care. I'm not sure what inspired me to drink a mocha since I don't drink coffee or any of its derivatives. I think it was just one of the many examples of how everything is backwards for me in London.

After checking out a few more paintings while Mikki looked around the gift shop, I bought some postcards of the famous artwork I saw up close for my scrapbook.

We didn't get off the bus anymore, mainly because we were tired and "sightsawed" out, but also because we didn't want to risk getting off and then getting on another bus that took us—God forbid—back to Parliament or Trafalgar Square. If we never saw either of those places again, that would be fine with us.

In addition to being tired, we were pretty cold (42). London is not a warm place in May.

I was willing to get off the bus to get a good look at the Globe and get some pictures if going inside it wasn't an option. We learned that the current Globe structure is not the same one that was there in the sixteenth century, due to a cannon that went off during one of Shakespeare's plays (Richard III?) and set the thatched roof on fire.

We went over the London Bridge, the tour guide pointed out The Globe theatre (43), and that was the end of that. What a disappointment. The bus then went back over the Thames via the Tower Bridge, which I'll admit was pretty cool (44), (45).

After that we decided to call it a day and head back. We got off at the bus (46) closest Piccadilly Tube station around 5:30pm and we had to get back for our meeting at 6:30pm.

We got back to Russell Square around 6:10pm and decided to reward ourselves for all of our sightseeing with pashminas at a cart right outside the Tube station entrance. It was £5 each or three for £10, so we got three—Mikki got one to add to the other one she bought in Covent Garden, and I got two.

We raced up to our hotel room, freshened up and then went over to the Contiki Basement to meet up with our tour group. But no one was there. A staff member told us that the tour meeting started at 6pm (oops) and that there might still be some people at the coffee shop upstairs.

There were still some people standing around. We met Hans, our tour manager, and Reuben, our bus driver. Reuben was hot, and reminded me of one of my high school teachers, Mr. Anderson. We also met Alberto, a Brazilian, while waiting in line to get any kind of important information from Hans.

We didn't stick around for too long since we knew that we'd be spending the next two weeks with these people. On our way back to the Imperial, we ran into Becca and Zeeni, who were on their way to the meeting—and I thought we were late. The four of us agreed to meet up in half an hour at the Basement and then go out for dinner together and tell each other about our day.

Mikki and I went to a local souvenir shop to pick up a few souvenirs for others. I picked up a new travel alarm clock since the one I bought from Target was not going to wake me up on the early mornings to come. We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed over to the Basement to send some emails. We stopped at the classic English pay phones to get a picture (47), and they were disgusting. Honestly, they smelled like port-a-potties, and were probably used as such more so than for phone calls.

I wrote Dan (my boyfriend), an email to let him know that I was in London, safe and sound, and that we'd be leaving for Amsterdam in the morning. I sent a few others, including an apology to Lisa (alias: Maven of Music) for oversleeping and missing our Let's-tour-London date, before the four of us went out for dinner. Since I still had not had my Indian food fix, I was determined to get it on our last night in London.

Becca was nervous since she had never had Indian food before and couldn't handle spicy foods. Zeeni knew her Indian food way better than me and promised Becca she'd be fine.

We found a local Indian restaurant after about ten minutes of walking/exploring. That's the good thing about London—it isn't hard to find an Indian restaurant. DC doesn't have a huge Indian population like London does, and therefore, isn't known for its Indian food. Our waiter was very helpful (a first), in suggesting dishes that Becca would like. All the food was wonderful, we ordered too much, and even Becca liked it.

Becca and Zeeni told us about their crazy night Sunday night and all the clubs and people they met. They swore that going to one club (Fabric) made London totally worth it. It's a good thing they had a relaxing Monday scheduled at the spa, since they were out Sunday night until dawn.

We all headed back to the Imperial to pack up our stuff so that we would be ready to go at 6:45am. We stopped at the little shop where Zeeni had bought spray-on deodorant to stock up on snacks for the bus ride. Becca spotted a snack named Maryland (where she lives) (48)—it seems like none of the brands are the same on both sides of the pond.

Back at the hotel, as I was packing my stuff, I realized that my teddy bear was missing. I had slept with the bear the night before and was pretty sure that whoever cleaned the room stripped the beds and didn't realized my bear was in the sheets. :-( I called Housekeeping, and they said they had already sent out the laundry and that I would have to call back on Thursday at the earliest. I took a shower, and mourned the loss of my bear; I wasn't too optimistic that I'd get him back.

After I finished up with everything, and rearranged my suitcase and backpack so that I definitely wouldn't go over the weight limit, I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant to meet up with Becca and Zeeni. Mikki (who is a travel nurse), had to call a hiring manager in Hawaii for a possible assignment (which is ten hours behind London time).

Becca, Zeeni, and I had some wine and met some guys from Florida that were in London on a school trip. How come I didn't know about these classes when I was in college? Mikki came and met us and we chatted with Justin and Matt, who were nice, but honestly I was relieved they weren't on our trip. They weren't very bright.

Becca and Zeeni got a second wind and decided to go out. Mikki and I had had a very full day and decided to go to bed. Tomorrow was going to be huge.